


Baggage

by ProtoNeoRomantic



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Addiction, COVID-19, Ficlet, Gen, Ideological Conflict, Intersectionality, Race, bias, crisis magnifies existing tensions, fragment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28319172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic
Summary: This argument happened on it's own in my brain this morning while I was trying to read an article about Black Covid patients being denied pain medication.
Relationships: Maggie Pierce & Amelia Shepherd
Kudos: 5





	Baggage

"Okay, what the Hell was that?" Amelia demanded as soon as the door was shut behind them and they could pretend the interns on the other side of it were out of earshot.

Maggie gave her a look. One that was normally reserved for more-than-reasonably-irate family members of patients. A look that said she was in the process of choosing her words carefully while heroically battling her own righteous indignation to do so.

"You know what? Don't even!" Amelia snapped just as Maggie finally opened her mouth to speak whatever 'tactful' words of censure she'd been marshaling to simultaneously placate and correct her unreasonable colleague. "I get it. You're inherently better at treating pain than I am because I'm still just the crazy junkie that wants to deny everybody else what she can't have. I couldn't possibly have any insight or experience that-- "

"Amelia..." Maggie tried to cut in warningly, her voice simmering with quiet outrage, "You do _not_ want to have this argument with me right now."

"Oh, no!" Amelia rejoined sardonically, "Of course not! How could my misguided junkie arguments possibly hope to stand against your superior wisdom and righteousness as the only person in the hospital qualified to understand what any of our patients are going through! It's not like I could ever understand--!"

"You know what, fine!" Maggie cut her off, raising her voice at last, giving up her 'high road' tone a little, "Make me say it! People of Color, _especially_ Back Women, have enough trouble getting adequate healthcare, _especially_ pain management, without you projecting your issues onto them and punishing them for your mistakes! And yes, you are a drug addict, not because some doctor wrote you a prescription when you were in real, physical pain, but because you chose to look for physical solutions to your emotional problems rather than doing the hard work of getting to the roots of your own pain and dealing with the causes instead of just the symptoms. And that is on you, and on your mother, and your father's killer, and maybe even on St. Derek Shepard, but it is not on me and it sure as Hell isn't on your dying patient whose lungs feel like they're on fire every time she tries to breathe!"


End file.
